The present invention relates to a rapid diagnosis device with locking of a cover element, in particular when a test strip has been inserted into the rapid diagnosis device, the rapid diagnosis device having a heating element and being exposed to environmental influences.
In the case of rapid diagnosis devices of the kind commonly used today for the evaluation of test strips, soiling of a heating element used in the rapid diagnosis device occurs after it has been in operation for quite a long time. The arrangement of the heating element is required to bring the test strip to a specific temperature, permitting optimum evaluation of the specimen being measured. In the course of time, particles are deposited on the heating element which is accommodated inside the device housing of the rapid diagnosis device and they have to be removed from time to time, since, when there is an increasing build-up of particles on the heating element, its efficiency is impaired or the current consumption of the heating element becomes too great. In order to clean from time to time the heating element accommodated inside the device housing of the rapid diagnosis device, the removal of a cover element or a flap element which is let into the device housing is required. Therefore, the device housing is provided with a sheet-like element which is generally designed as a cover or as a flap and can be removed from the device housing. The removable sheet-like element also allows disturbing ambient light to enter the interior of the device housing, which can impair the measurement considerably, in particular in the case of optical measuring devices with which test elements or test strips are evaluated by optical means.
In general, a housing opening which can be closed by the cover or a flap element lies on the side of the device housing of the rapid diagnosis device in which the push-in opening for a test strip to be pushed into the interior of the device housing lies.
It has been found that, when the test strip to be evaluated inside the rapid diagnosis device is pushed in, there are isolated instances in which the cover or the flap closing the device housing is inadvertently or intentionally opened, which can lead to erroneous measurements, i.e., defective evaluations of the test strip pushed into the interior of the housing.
The erroneous measurements are attributable to the fact that a sudden temperature change can occur in the ambience of the test strip to be evaluated on account of the removal of the cover or opening of the flap on the front side of the device housing of the rapid diagnosis device. The missing cover element or the missing flap element at the housing opening allows entry of ambient air, which considerably influences the temperature level produced by the heating element in the interior of the device housing, so that a test strip evaluated under changing ambient conditions with regard to the temperature may lead to an unusable test result. With a missing cover element, it is also possible in particular in the case of optical measuring devices for disturbing ambient light to enter the interior of the device housing, which considerably impairs the evaluation of test elements to be evaluated optically.
Apart from a defective measurement, abnormal termination of the measurement may also occur.